Reince Priebus: Immigration reform not dead

Don’t count Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus among those who believe comprehensive immigration reform is dead this Congress.

Despite exasperation among reform advocates that the House has refused to vote on any major immigration bill — particularly the Senate-passed legislation — Priebus said that his “gut” feeling is that the House will indeed pass an immigration overhaul in the next 14 months.

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“Something significant is going to happen because obviously mass deportation is not an option. I don’t think doing nothing is an option. And I believe most people would agree that something significant needs to take place. Now what that is, I don’t get to make that decision,” Priebus told Bloomberg’s Al Hunt in an interview set to run Friday evening on “Political Capital.”

House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has informed immigration advocates that the House will not take up a comprehensive bill this year, according to the Associated Press. But even with congressional eyes beginning to shift to the 2014 midterm elections, Priebus said there is no specific cut-off date approaching that will spell doom for an immigration bill’s chances in the current Congress.

“The idea that either a comprehensive approach or a multi-tiered approach is not going to happen by the end of the year, I don’t think that’s necessarily true. I think that it can happen, and I think people like Paul Ryan and others still want something like that to happen,” Priebus said. “It could happen next year … I don’t think there’s any sort of midnight hour here.”